Bits and Pieces

Here are some things I have omitted from other entries or things I picked up that I thought you mind find interesting:

"Haka": Maori for any form of dance but it has come to be associated with the war chant that precedes battle. The most famous haka comes from a chief of the Ngati Toa tribe (1768 - 1849) and has been made famous by the All Blacks rugby team and is a powerful national symbol of pride and identity. Here is the English translation.

It is death, it is death
It is life, it is life
Behold the hairy man
Who caused the sun to shine
Abreast, keep abreast
The rank, hold fast
Into the sunshine

Very powerful....and it seems to be working for the All Blacks as they clean up at the rugby tournament in France. If you want to hear how they intimidate their opponents, look it up on the internet and have a listen.

Cormorant: When we were kayaking the other day we were introduced to the N.Z. cormorant that looks and walks like a penguin. It has huge black webbed feet and it flies and lands in trees. Nothing graceful about it's landings and we happened to see one land on it's nest. We almost fell out of the kayak laughing. It soared in, stuck out it huge feet, floundered, scrambled and appeared as if it was going to crash...then at the last moment it got it's toes around the nest and looked almost relieved as it settled in. Very cute!

Shop in Hokitika: I was about to pay for a purchase and the owners were both serving. The woman asked me where home was and when I replied "Canada", her husband (who was trimming a Christmas tree about a foot away) peered up over his glasses and said "Love, it's a good thing you didn't say "American" or I'd have had to give you a proper bottom slapping!" His wife added "He would too!" Too funny!

Jandles - are Kiwi for flip flops

In Kaikoura, we returned to our camper after being in town for the evening and saw two children close to our van, hunkered over something really small on the driveway. I asked what they were looking at and they replied "a baby hedgehog". It was adorable! So were the children. They were from Christchurch on a weekend getaway with their parents. She was 11 and her brother was 8. They asked us so many questions about Canada and our visit to their country....I thought I'd never get to bed. So very sweet.

That's it for now folks!